Joseph vs Curly

Lately, for some strange reasons, my mum has been making comparisons between my Joseph, age 4 and her Curly, a poodle, age 1.5. You could call it mothers’ kiasu syndrome but I actually find it quite entertaining! Yesterday, my mum went on again, saying that Curly has a clear sense of time; when its time to take her for a stroll, she would automatically wait by the door and get real bouncy when my mum starts to put on her shoes; Joseph, on the other hand, has been whining since morning about why his music class hasn’t started when his class is in the afternoon! The other hot topic is Curly’s good behaviour at home, never whining nor barking unnecessarily; Joseph, well, as expected, whines more than he speaks!

As his mother, I felt the need to defend Joseph! Afterall, he could write his alphabets and count up to 15. Surely these are stuff that Curly can’t do! More importantly, Joseph has been blessed to be given a free will to decide whether to obey his parents whereas Curly is just an animal with limited choices to make! I for one know that Joseph has been struggling to do the right thing. As with all children of God, we are all given a free will to choose.

Some of us choose to put our faith in Jesus; some choose otherwise. Some of us choose to obey our parents and adhere to the law; while others might not. In my opinion, the most sacred choice we could make is to choose our eternal home. As Max Lucado puts it aptly: “You can afford many wrong choices in life. You can choose the wrong career and survive, the wrong city and survive, the wrong house and survive. You can even choose the wrong mate and survive. But there is one choice that must be made correctly and that is your eternal destiny.” Such complicated choices are unavailable to our pet, Curly. But for Joseph, I pray that as he grows, he will make the right decision as to where he will spend his eternal life.